than anyone could hope to write. Result aside it was a fairly fitting last regular season game as it showed a lot our best qualities and all our worst ones.
This has been my favorite team in quite some time… from day one, back in February against UNC Asheville, I’ve enjoyed watching these guys get after it. But, the holes and shortcomings have always been evident, and we saw a lot of that yesterday too.
-Lost in the shuffle was Sebastian Murillo getting K’d on a pitch clock violation in, I think, the 2nd inning. That was a big out and one that Florida didn’t really to earn. The home plate ump said to our dugout that Murillo “wasn’t alert” in the batters box when time expired. I think you have to show some discretion there. That’s a big out that shouldn’t be decided on what amounts to a technicality.
-I’ve noticed that Will Coggin basically does everything offensively… Coach Johnson doesn’t really engage the umps much when we are at the plate. It was Coggin arguing about Murillo, and Coggin and almost always only Coggin, in our offensive timeouts. I’m not offering that as a criticism. With where we are offensively, Coggin has earned that. And it says a lot about both Coggin and Johnson that Johnson is that hands-off in year one of his first college head coaching gig.
-I sure felt great about things when we bounced Caglionne in the 3rd inning. We hadn’t delivered the knockout punch by any means, but I’m sure Florida’s plan was to get 6-7 out of him. With their bullpen, I thought our chances to win the game were very high at that point. And 11 runs really should have done it. But give that Jamison kid credit. He came on and really settled it down. I think we went 1-2-3 after their 12-run inning. That was arguably their most important defensive half inning yesterday.
-Not much question that the 12-run inning was our worst of the year. That wasn’t all on the pitching either. We didn’t make a couple of plays in the OF that should have been made. We played two guys in CF this weekend. Both made some great plays and both had some pretty bad ones. I think both sometimes just don’t read the ball off the bat and wind up being a step or two late, or taking a weird route to the ball. In any case, a lot has to go wrong in order for 12 runs to show up in an inning… and a lot did.
-Even at 7-3, I felt like we’d come back. That was what was so frustrating about it. If we could have just stopped the bleeding there, we’re ok.
-Going into yesterday I thought we’d get 4 innings out of Roberge and Marsh. We wound up getting 1 out. Both guys, but especially Marsh, just seem so much more effective when they have a clean inning to start. But that’s not always possible of course. That didn’t look like a very pleasant conversation between Coach and Roberge during the pitching change either.
-I tell you, in the 8th inning, I really thought that we were going to come all the way back. I was really starting to believe for a minute there. I wish that ball Collins hit would have been a foot more to the second base side.
-Great to see Condon get #35. And I believe that he ends the regular season with more extra bass hits than games played. There just aren’t enough adjectives for Condon.
-Overall I’m surprised we didn’t hit more HRs yesterday.
-I know everyone is disappointed about Friday and yesterday. I am too. But 17-13 is a smashing success. Also, if you take away the first three games and the last two, we went 17-8 in the “middle” 25 games.
-Lastly, my daughter turns 6 next month. She put in her first ever complete game yesterday, in a game that lasted almost four hours. Then ran the bases afterward. Great effort on her part! I’m not sure I could have hung that long as a 5-year old!
This has been my favorite team in quite some time… from day one, back in February against UNC Asheville, I’ve enjoyed watching these guys get after it. But, the holes and shortcomings have always been evident, and we saw a lot of that yesterday too.
-Lost in the shuffle was Sebastian Murillo getting K’d on a pitch clock violation in, I think, the 2nd inning. That was a big out and one that Florida didn’t really to earn. The home plate ump said to our dugout that Murillo “wasn’t alert” in the batters box when time expired. I think you have to show some discretion there. That’s a big out that shouldn’t be decided on what amounts to a technicality.
-I’ve noticed that Will Coggin basically does everything offensively… Coach Johnson doesn’t really engage the umps much when we are at the plate. It was Coggin arguing about Murillo, and Coggin and almost always only Coggin, in our offensive timeouts. I’m not offering that as a criticism. With where we are offensively, Coggin has earned that. And it says a lot about both Coggin and Johnson that Johnson is that hands-off in year one of his first college head coaching gig.
-I sure felt great about things when we bounced Caglionne in the 3rd inning. We hadn’t delivered the knockout punch by any means, but I’m sure Florida’s plan was to get 6-7 out of him. With their bullpen, I thought our chances to win the game were very high at that point. And 11 runs really should have done it. But give that Jamison kid credit. He came on and really settled it down. I think we went 1-2-3 after their 12-run inning. That was arguably their most important defensive half inning yesterday.
-Not much question that the 12-run inning was our worst of the year. That wasn’t all on the pitching either. We didn’t make a couple of plays in the OF that should have been made. We played two guys in CF this weekend. Both made some great plays and both had some pretty bad ones. I think both sometimes just don’t read the ball off the bat and wind up being a step or two late, or taking a weird route to the ball. In any case, a lot has to go wrong in order for 12 runs to show up in an inning… and a lot did.
-Even at 7-3, I felt like we’d come back. That was what was so frustrating about it. If we could have just stopped the bleeding there, we’re ok.
-Going into yesterday I thought we’d get 4 innings out of Roberge and Marsh. We wound up getting 1 out. Both guys, but especially Marsh, just seem so much more effective when they have a clean inning to start. But that’s not always possible of course. That didn’t look like a very pleasant conversation between Coach and Roberge during the pitching change either.
-I tell you, in the 8th inning, I really thought that we were going to come all the way back. I was really starting to believe for a minute there. I wish that ball Collins hit would have been a foot more to the second base side.
-Great to see Condon get #35. And I believe that he ends the regular season with more extra bass hits than games played. There just aren’t enough adjectives for Condon.
-Overall I’m surprised we didn’t hit more HRs yesterday.
-I know everyone is disappointed about Friday and yesterday. I am too. But 17-13 is a smashing success. Also, if you take away the first three games and the last two, we went 17-8 in the “middle” 25 games.
-Lastly, my daughter turns 6 next month. She put in her first ever complete game yesterday, in a game that lasted almost four hours. Then ran the bases afterward. Great effort on her part! I’m not sure I could have hung that long as a 5-year old!
